Picture gallery from the north

Here are some pictures from one of the recent Jazz and Fly Fishing trips. Let’s start with the introduction:

Extreme arctic fishing ahead!

Hi

I’m just finishing my packing for the expedition we are going to make with the JFF team. The destination is far up north, about as far as you can get in Europe. Tomorrow I will travel to Kiruna in northern Sweden where I’ll catch up with the other guys. Then we drive further up north to a secret destination that might be revealed later. What I can tell you is that no jazz band has ever fished there before.

We are expecting to encounter big trout and arctic char on this trip. We know for sure that where we are heading there’s fish up to 5 kilos, and trout between 2 and 3 kilos are not rare. But if they are easy to catch, that’s another thing. There’s also the riskt that the northern wind can spoil the trip. Heavy winds from the North Pole can make fly fishing difficult at times. In the northernmost parts of Scandinavia there are hadly any trees to stop the wind either.So this trip is like gambling, we put all in and might get home empty-handed, or we might hit the jackpot.

We will of course be filming the action and the films will be published on this site. Be patient – for some reason we like to spend more time fishing than editing movies right now. As soon as we get back we’ll start working on the video footage!

The JFF High Life

The tent woke us up automatically after the temperature in the morning sunshine reached 55C. It was good to take a morning swim in the river although the water was way too cold. Finally, we had the time to do some serious fishing without too much hurry. Did we catch anything? Yes we did.

On the last days eve in the tundra we had a concert and a fish feast at the base camp. We weren’t expecting any audience, but something nice happened, you’ll hear about it later.

Ransarån

This area holds some beautiful fishing waters that all have more or less the same name: Ransan, Ransaran, Ransarån, Ransaren…  We took the boat at lower Ransarån  to get across the lake Ransan. Our target was to go to the river-mouth of the upper Ransarån and hike upstream to find a good camping spot.

Taking the easy way across the lake

It was a very nice hike by the reindeer trail. Looking at the pools and streams our anticipation for the fishing was quickly building. Fredrik took the time to pick up some mushrooms. We ate them.

Håvard doing the Bear Song

The border of Sweden and Norway is amazing when it comes to scenic views and good fishing. The upper Ransarån is a versatile river in a bigger water system. The wildlife here is still very abundant, and during the boat trip I heard some stories of encounters with the bear. Since the area is one of the most densely populated bear territories in northern scandinavia, the stories were not hard for me to believe. But we weren’t here for the bear. I had a feeling we could easily spend two weeks exploring these waters and finding the best holding spots for the trout.

Fredrik's trout

As the sun went down, we were ready. And when it comes to fishing, night is the time when things really start cooking.

More coming soon§

Here are some very exclusive pics from our latest wilderness adventure. We are now pretty beaten and in a hurry to  the next gig. More text and pictures about what REALLY happened are coming soon.

Lappland Magic

Back up in Lappland now, after some wonderful days in the Finnish koskis. Great audiences, big trout, beautiful scenery, comfortable living, unisex sauna…I’m hooked for life!

Lappland has been fantastic during the last few days. We’ve caught several remarkable  fish, and really gotten close to some serious wildlife. Fresh bear tracks 100m from our tent…

A couple of days ago, my friend Arne took us to a special place he recently discovered, and the fishing there was absolutely fantastic. Thanks man!

Next stop for us is the Groove Valley Jazz Camp in Beiarn, where we plan to put our portable sauna into good use. The Beiarn river is arguably one of Norway’s finest salmon rivers, and there are lots of top jazzmusicians fishing and partying there during the festival, so we really couldn’t have found a better location for this crazy project. We’re gonna have some special guests on the gig there, and we’ll  play some brand new material, so Beiarn is going to be exciting. We’re also really looking forward to our (possible) rendezvous with the king of all fish – the Atlantic salmon.

Since none of us are experienced salmon anglers, we have to hope for some beginner’s luck. May the Gods be with us!

Swingin’ at the Skansen

After a good night’s sleep in Kilpisjärvi, we headed for Tromsö and the Skansen café, where we played what must be our best concert so far. The interplay is getting more creative with every concert, and we’re really having a good time with the music now, playing with the songs and challenging each other. Great success!

After the gig we went to the Mystic River. The river was very kind to us, and we caught several beautiful trout and arctic char while sight-fishing in the crystal clear water.